When we launched Xbox Game Pass in June 2017, we knew we wanted to craft a service with gamers in mind. That meant a diverse, expanding library of over 100 games and counting, matched with one monthly price and unlimited access to download and play full-fidelity experiences.

We’ve been blown away by the incredible response. Following launch, we heard from fans around the world who wanted Xbox Game Pass in their country. In September, we expanded globally and Xbox Game Pass is now available to fans in 40 countries. We’ve also continued to expand the catalog with new games added to the Xbox Game Pass library every month, so there is always something new to play.

We know our fans value having a variety of games to play at a low monthly price. We’ve also heard from fans that the ability to play new blockbuster games in Xbox Game Pass is important. So we’ve continued to explore new ideas to make this possible.

Today, we’re excited to announce plans for a major expansion to Xbox Game Pass that underscores our commitment to deliver our fans the ultimate gaming subscription service.

Moving forward, we plan to release all new Xbox One exclusive games from Microsoft Studios into Xbox Game Pass on the same date as their global release. This means that when Sea of Thieveslaunches on March 20, it will be included in Xbox Game Pass to all members.

This plan to bring new games timed with their global release into Xbox Game Pass not only includes announced titles like Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2 and Crackdown 3 but future unannounced games from Microsoft Studios including new iterations of our biggest Xbox One exclusive franchises such as Halo,Forza and Gears of War, on the same day they launch.

Our fans have also asked for more choice in the subscription offerings available for Xbox Game Pass. As part of today’s library expansion, we are also pleased to announce that we are working closely with our retail partners, such as GameStop, to offer a 6-month Xbox Game Pass subscription card for those fans who look for a variety of ways to purchase and enjoy new games and services. The 6-month Xbox Game Pass subscription card will be available at select retail partners for $59.99 beginning March 20. By working closely with retail partners, Xbox Game Pass will have valuable ambassadors in popular destinations for gamers to discover new and exciting games and enjoy community.

With the addition of more great games, new blockbuster releases and a new subscription offer, we are giving fans more choice and value in how they discover and enjoy games – purchase games for their permanent library or play through Xbox Game Pass for one low price.

We’ve only scratched the surface of the opportunity this new model brings to the industry and what we can deliver to our fans. We firmly believe Xbox Game Pass will be a catalyst to create new opportunities for game developers and publishers to innovate in the way games are developed and delivered, leading to entirely new ways to play.

We’re truly humbled by the incredible response we’ve received to date for Xbox Game Pass, and we look forward to offering an unprecedented choice and value with Xbox Game Pass this spring and beyond.

So, here we are again to yet another Quickie for your reading pleasure! For today's menu I bring you an interesting take on the digital trading card genre. A sequel to a game that came out on Xbox Games with Gold some time ago. And while it was a very nice surprise among gamers it did have some flaws that hopefully were sorted in this sequel. I never hid my desire in playing a possible sequel and when Defiant Development gave me this opportunity it is needless to say I was more than a little excited for it. So what caused me to decide on awarding my final score? Read on, dear friends!

Since its release in 2016, millions of players have been exploring the world of Forza Horizon 3 on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs, the highest-rated Xbox One exclusive. We are pleased to announce that, today, Xbox One X enhancements arrive for Forza Horizon 3, as a free download for players with an Xbox One X.

Forza Horizon 3 on Xbox One X is powered by the same state-of-the art ForzaTech engine at the heart of the Forza franchise, also used to develop Forza Motorsport 7 for Xbox One X which brought native 4K resolution racing to the new platform. Forza Horizon 3 enhancements let players experience the game in native 4K along with a host of additional visual updates, including improved car reflections and shadow resolutions, improved texture detail for road and terrain surfaces, and more. In addition, 4K resolution enhancements will be fully compatible with both Blizzard Mountain and Hot Wheels expansions for Forza Horizon 3. Whether you’re careening across the dunes of the Outback in your favorite off-roader or building up a legion of fans with death-defying stunt driving in the rainforest, the 4K-enhanced version of Forza Horizon 3 is a thrilling blend of fantastic gameplay and cutting-edge visuals.

As part of Xbox’s ongoing Inside Xbox One X Enhanced series, I chatted with Playground Games’ creative director Ralph Fulton for insight into the studio’s work on the enhancements. Enjoy!

What specifically has your team done to enhance Forza Horizon 3 for Xbox One X?

First and foremost, this update enables Forza Horizon 3 to run in native 4K (3840×2160) on a console for the very first time. Forza Horizon 3 has always been a fantastic-looking game but the clarity and detail of native 4K resolution really brings the vast playground of Australia to life like never before. In addition, we’ve made a number of graphical improvements to the game, such as increased shadow resolution, improved visual effects and increased LOD and draw distances, which take advantage of the power of the Xbox One X.

How do these enhancements impact the gaming experience?

These enhancements are all about the visuals. We know that our fans really value great image quality, so we’ve taken this opportunity to deliver that to them with this update on Xbox One X. On top of the obvious enhancement to native 4K, there are a number of other improvements we’ve made which really take advantage of the added definition 4K brings. Reflections are sharper and clearer, environment shadows are crisper and better defined, the quality of motion blur has been increased to make the driving experience significantly smoother, and better anisotropic filtering improves the detail visible in environment textures, particularly on the roads themselves. For me, the biggest improvement is in the combination of 4K and HDR though, especially in Forza Horizon 3‘s dynamic time-lapse skies. The sky is such a huge part of nearly every scene in the game that it affects the feel of the game a great deal, and the improvements we’ve made to reflections and shadows really complement it.

Why did your development team choose to focus on these enhancement areas?

We’ve been positively overwhelmed by the positive feedback we’ve had from the community over the last year about the quality of the gameplay in Forza Horizon 3 and the amount of fun they have with it, and we feel really proud that we’ve been able to keep that going with the high-quality Blizzard Mountain and Hot Wheels expansions, car packs and weekly Forzathon events. This was our opportunity to bring the game to native 4K on console for the first time and make a great-looking game look even better.

How do you expect Forza Horizon 3 fans will respond to seeing and playing it on Xbox One X with these enhancements?

I feel like we’re at the crest of a wave in the transition to 4K – more and more people are trading up to 4K TVs and want native 4K experiences to show what their new TV can do. That was exactly my experience when I upgraded recently and I’ve really enjoyed getting back into some of my favourite games, like the The Witcher 3 for example, as they’ve released their enhanced versions. I hope that will be the case for Forza Horizon 3 fans as well. When I’ve been playing with the update in the studio, I’ve been really blown away by the beauty of the world, like I’m seeing it for the first time and I hope Horizon fans feel the same way too. One of my favourite things about Forza is the incredible photography which comes out of the community.I follow a bunch of Forza photography accounts on Twitter, where the creativity of Forza fans always blows me away, so I’m really looking forward to seeing the community photographs which come out of the enhanced version.

How has the process been to get the game up and running on Xbox One X?

It’s been incredibly straightforward. It took us less than a day from receiving our first Xbox One X kit to get Forza Horizon 3 up and running in 4K, and when we did we still had a lot of spare headroom on both the CPU and the GPU. The Xbox One Development Kit for the Xbox One X is by far the most developer-friendly and powerful dev kit we’ve ever worked with, which makes it a pleasure to develop for.

What enhancement were you most excited about to explore leveraging for Forza Horizon 3 on Xbox One X?

Our goal with this update was to bring Forza Horizon 3 in 4K to console for the first time, and that’s what we’ve delivered. As I mentioned earlier, as one of the first titles which featured HDR on the Xbox One S, we’ve been really excited by the visual combination of native and HDR technology – it is a real, evolutionary leap in graphics.

What does 4K and HDR mean for your game, games in the future and development at your studio?

We know our players value incredible visuals, effects and image quality, and we put a huge amount of effort into delivering them with every title. Native 4K resolution, especially when combined with HDR, is a huge step forward in visual fidelity and as mass adoption of 4K displays continues it will become the standard by which game visuals are judged. For us, as a studio, the power of the Xbox One X, as well as its ease of development and straightforward compatibility across the Xbox One family of devices, has made it the lead development platform for the new title we’re currently working on. This means a couple of things. First, it means we’re developing from the ground up to take advantage of the Xbox One X’s enormous graphical horsepower, an approach which will continue to yield massive advances in visual quality. Secondly, though, it also means you’ll see improvements on Xbox One and Xbox One S as a result – we find that there’s a trickle-down effect when you develop for the most powerful hardware which brings improvements even on the less powerful machines.

Hey kids! I guess it's time for another "needs no introduction" wonderful, quick and easy Quickie Review! This time I bring you a game that actually has been on my radar since it launched on Playstation 4 and PC some time ago. At a given time I had lost hope it would launch on the Xbox One but lo and behold, it finally did! And with some nice enhancements too, which is nice. So what am I talking about? Yeah, this is a game made by Frictional Games, mostly known by their excellent "survival horror" games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which was the very first game I actually had to stop playing for a while, and one that made my adrenaline pump like crazy. So yeah, you can tell I was more than a little excited when I was given the chance to try this "new" game out. So let's get on it!

Since PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) launched on Xbox One through the Xbox Game Preview program, it’s been awesome to see the excitement and passion on display from the Xbox community. Whether you’re streaming in the HypeZone on Mixer or battling for a chicken dinner with your squad, players on Xbox are helping build and improve the game on console. Today, PUBG Corp. and Xbox are excited to share that through the end of 2017 the PUBG community on Xbox One has already grown to over three million players. Thank you for your incredible support!

The team at PUBG Corp. is determined to continue to improve the in-game experience for PUBG’s growing and active community and have already released four updates since the game’s launch in Xbox Game Preview on December 12. You’ll continue to see regular updates roll out for PUBG on Xbox One such as this week’s addition of first-person support for solo, duo, and squads gameplay and the team is just getting started, with more updates planned that include additional game optimization and the new Miramar map – keep up-to-date by visiting PUBG Corp’s official forums.

For players just getting started, there will be a Tips and Tricks segment on Mixer at 3 p.m. PST on January 16 to share tips on inventory management and showcase UX shortcuts and features on the Xbox One controller. This is part of an ongoing series to help new and existing players jump in and start earning their chicken dinner. Be sure to stay tuned to Xbox Wire and Major Nelson for all the latest news on PUBG for Xbox One – see you on the battleground!

Happy New Year, everyone! We’re back working hard on Sea of Thieves after the holidays and a December chock-full of announcements. We revealed March 20 as our launch date and made a star of an unsuspecting chicken with a swashbuckling trailer, kicked off pre-orders, revealed how you progress through the world of Sea of Thieves, and showed off our haunting Limited Edition controller. All that and we hosted our biggest ever Technical Alpha play session last month.

All hands are now back on deck here at Rare as we sail toward launch. We’ll have plenty to share, show off and celebrate before then, but we’re beginning 2018 with the announcement of our upcoming Closed Beta dates.

The Sea of Thieves Closed Beta will run from 12 p.m. GMT on January 24 to 8 a.m. GMT on January 29 (4 a.m. PST on January 24 to 12 a.m. PST on January 29), which gives pirates a full five days of sailing, shanties and shenanigans. We’ve crafted a bespoke experience for Closed Beta players that offers a true taste of the pirate life and a great chance to get your sea legs ahead of March 20! We won’t be testing the full game during this Closed Beta phase: we want to keep a good selection of things up our sleeves for players to discover at launch. So get your calendars out and get those dates pencilled in!

The Sea of Thieves Closed Beta will be accessible to anyone who joined the Sea of Thieves Insider Programme before December 1, 2017, and anyone who pre-orders the game. If you’ve already pre-ordered the game and want to find out how to download the Closed Beta client, visit our website.

One final thing: the Closed Beta will not be covered by an NDA, so players can stream, create videos, share clips, take screenshots or do anything else that their wonderful minds can come up with. Some of our favourites will no doubt be shared on Sea of Thieves’ social channels and website. I know a lot of players will be excited by this announcement – I am too! If you missed out on the Insider Programme, pre-order now to ensure access to the Closed Beta!

Crazy looking multiplayer party game Marooners finally gets a launch date for consoles. Also, the game is available NOW for pre-order and pre-download on Xbox One.

Play a wild mix of fun party games as the action regularly switches back and forth between games. Can you handle the switcheroo chaos? Join your friends both on the couch and online while sadistically laughing at their misfortune, or come back to haunt them if you die. Run, jump and slap your way to victory!